For many years the United States postal system as well as many foreign postal systems have cancelled postage applied to envelopes, postal cards and various other stationary or parcel post objectes, by applying a cancellation seal to the postage stamp affixed to the envelope. The cancellation seal is applied by a hand stamp or machine cancelling devices. To be thus cancelled, it is a requirement by law that the stamp being cancelled be affixed to the exterior of the envelope, post card, etc., and the cancellation seal impressed on the stamp containing the name of the post office and the date of cancellation.
In the case where a new series of stamps is being issued, because of demand by stamp collectors, the post office on the first day of issue of the new series will apply a special seal in conducting the cancellation procedure. This special First Day of Issue cancellation seal includes a bulls eye portion having the date and the name of the post office thereon together with a killer bar cancellation segment which produces a quantity of parallel wavy lines that extend over the stamp being cancelled. In this special First Day of Issue cancellation seal, the words "First Day of Issue" are included along with the killer bar segments. In the past, the First Day of Issue cancellation seal customarily has been used in cancelling stamps only on the first day of issue of the stamp. However, in recent years, the first day cancellation privileges have been extended for a thirty day period for the convenience of the post offices to reduce work load based on first day of issue cancellation by collectors. This turn of events has impaired somewhat the "First Day of Issue" cancellation integrity, thereby lessening the value of authenticity to a sheet of first day of issue stamps obtained by collectors.
It is a particular object of the present invention to provide for authentication of large sheets of stamps in a manner which would be truly valid with respect to the "First Day of Issue" particularly with respect to whole sheet quantities of stamps. Heretofore, whole sheets of stamps have been cancelled by the post office with a First Day of Issue cancellation seal which cancels four stamps simultaneously. In cases where a panel or pane of say thirty-two stamps on a sheet are to be cancelled, multiple application of the cancellation seal is required thereby greatly increasing the work load on the post offices. This past process also results in marring the appearance of the stamps, thereby decreasing their value.